Developmental atlas of the early first trimester human embryo

Abstract

*Rapid advances in medical imaging are facilitating the clinical assessment of first-trimester human embryos at increasingly earlier stages. To obtain data on early human development, we used magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and episcopic fluorescence capture (EFIC) to acquire digital images of human embryos spanning the time of dynamic tissue remodeling and organogenesis (Carnegie stages 13 to 23). These imaging data sets are readily resectioned digitally in arbitrary planes, suitable for rapid high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) observation. Using these imaging datasets, a web-accessible digital Human Embryo Atlas (http://apps.devbio.pitt.edu/humanatlas/) was created containing serial 2D images of human embryos in three standard histological planes: sagittal, frontal, and transverse. In addition, annotations and 3D reconstructions were generated for visualizing different anatomical structures. Overall, this Human Embryo Atlas is a unique resource that provides morphologic data of human developmental anatomy that can accelerate basic research investigations into developmental mechanisms that underlie human congenital anomalies. Developmental Dynamics 239:1585-1595,

Embryonic Liver Morphology and Morphometry by Magnetic Resonance Microscopic Imaging

“…Approximately 1,200 well-preserved human embryos diagnosed as externally normal at CS13 to CS23 were selected for MR microscopic imaging. The conditions used to acquire the MR images of the embryos are described elsewhere Matsuda et al, 2003Matsuda et al, , 2007Yamada et al, 2010).…”

Presenting Human Embryology in an International Open-Access Reference Centre (HERC)

“…Emphasis here lies on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of intact specimens; however, 1,000 specimens of this collection are serially sectioned, with one half of them being diagnosed as normal and the other half as abnormal. Further information on the Kyoto Collection may be found in Yamada et al (2010) and in the chapter by Yamada et al in this book.…”

“…In their clinically oriented approach, the Congenital Anomaly Research Centre at Kyoto University (Japan) created a web-accessible annotated 3-D Human Embryo Atlas using their extensive data base of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and episcopic fluorescence capture (EFIC) images of first trimester human embryos (Yamada et al 2010; http://apps.devbio.pitt.edu/HumanAtlas).…”

Fine Biomedical Imaging Using X-Ray Phase-Sensitive Technique

“…Nondestructive imaging technologies such as X-ray CT and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, which were originally developed as non-invasive diagnostic tools in clinical medicine, have also been applied to the imaging and 3D reconstruction of tiny biological structures such as embryos. The MR microscopic technology has been widely used to scan and visualize relatively small samples, including mammalian embryos (Smith et al, 1996;Smith, 1999;Haishi et al, 2001;Yamada et al, 2010), but MR microscopy does not yield resolution or contrast high enough for millimetre-sized embryos. Conventional X-ray CT was also developed for microscopic observation of small structures, but it is not appropriate for soft tissues such as embryos.…”